Our TV Shows, Ourselves

NYT looks at the popularity of television shows across the country.

From a purely visual perspective, New York Times’ maps showing the nationwide breakdown of the popularity of 50 different television shows based on the amount of Facebook likes they garner are quite pretty, kaleidoscopic when taken in total.

But as with the reds, blues and purples of electoral maps, the pinks, peaches and purple of the Upshot’s TV maps have a larger significance, with our tastes in television programming revealing the regional, cultural and political divides that exist here as in so many aspects of American life.

Some look similar to county maps of the 2016 election results–Duck Dynasty, for an obvious example. Others show entirely different divides.

Duck Dynasty was also the show with the strongest correlation between Facebook likes and Trump voters, but perhaps more surprisingly, The Voice had the third highest. The show with the strongest correlation between likes and Clinton supporters was Family Guy.

In Washington, popular shows included Game of Thrones, Modern Family and The Daily Show. Shows that weren’t very popular in DC were Duck Dynasty, The Voice and NCIS.